Ukraine accuses Russia of ‘irresponsible acts’ near Chernobyl, seeks UN help

Just days after Russian forces destroyed a functioning laboratory at the Chernobyl nuclear plant, Ukraine has accused Moscow of “irresponsible acts” near the plant which could send radiation across much of Europe.

Ukraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Sunday that Russian forces were militarising the exclusion zone around Chernobyl. The nuclear plant is currently not in use and all its reactors have been taken out of service.

Vereshchuk said they (Russian forces) were transporting huge amounts of old and badly maintained weapons, creating a risk of damaging the containment vessel constructed around the plant’s fourth reactor. “In the context of nuclear safety, the irresponsible and unprofessional actions of Russian servicemen present a very serious threat not only to Ukraine but to hundreds of millions of Europeans,” Vereshchuk said on her Telegram handle, according to reports.

She added that the Russian forces were preventing firefighters from dousing a large number of fires in the exclusion zone.

The Ukrainian deputy PM urged that the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) should adopt immediate measures to demilitarise the exclusion zone and dispatch a mission to assess risks of any repeat of the 1986 episode in Chernobyl, which is the worst nuclear disaster ever seen globally.

Vereshchuk also said that any damage to the containment vessel around the fourth reactor would inevitably lead to release in the atmosphere of a considerable amount of radioactive dust and contamination not only in Ukraine but also in other European nations.

Russia had first occupied the Chernobyl nuclear plant during the first days of the full-scale attack that started in February. The plant has reported a loss in its electricity supply twice.

And on Sunday, the Russian forces took control of Slavutych, where the staff members working at the Chernobyl plant live. Slavutych’s mayor Yuri Fomichev was briefly detained. “I have been released. Everything is fine, as far as it is possible under occupation,” Fomichev said.